This time last year I was a vegetarian and had been for about four years. Andy was a mostly vegetarian who only ate meat at restaurants. After we moved here we both slowly started eating meat again. Part of the reason was because fresh, happy meat is easier to come by here. But, a bigger part, I think, is that the culture here doesn’t really support vegetarianism. I’m not saying they don’t have vegetarian type stuff here like, um, vegetables, but it just doesn’t seem to fit here as much. Of course, it could be that we see so many cows everyday it just makes us hungry. (Though, we really don’t eat beef much at all.)

Today we got about 15 pounds of frozen venison off of freecycle. The lady got the venison from a friend, but her family refused to eat it. Deer hunting is a big deal around here. Deer are everywhere. Especially on the side of the road squished. One morning on the way into work we saw a deer carcass being devoured by two dogs. Once we saw a deer tossed over the spare tire on someone’s jeep.

While we were waiting this morning to see if we would be the lucky recipients of the free meat, we started pondering hunting. Wouldn’t it be neat to go out and hunt a deer and have our own meat? When I was a vegetarian I never had a problem with people hunting deer. There are so many of them; they need some predators besides cars. They aren’t as hard on the land as cows. They get to run and frolick and be free. They have a good life, and then hunters kill them and eat them. Sounds good to me.

I don’t know if I could hunt (mentally), or if I would be decent enough at it actually catch anything, but it is something I’m pondering. Maybe we can find some hunting mentors who would take us out and teach us the ropes. Or, maybe we’ll just mooch off of freecycle.

Speaking of meat, here are some photos of critters that will not become it.

Pumpernickel hides behind the feeder ’cause she knows it’s medicine time.

The ducks run around going WHEE.